Royston Matthew Smith (born 13 May 1964) is a British
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
politician and has served as
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for
Southampton Itchen
Southampton, Itchen is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Royston Smith, a Conservative member of parliament. Discounting the Speaker (of the House of Commons) returned in the early 1970s in two ...
since the
2015 general election.
Smith was previously a councillor on the
Southampton City Council
Southampton City Council is the local authority of the city of Southampton. It is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local ...
.
Early life and career
Smith was born on 13 May 1964
Harefield, Southampton to Frank Wilmot and Marie Cecilia Smith (née Page). He grew up in the suburb of
Bitterne Park
Bitterne Park is a suburb and Electoral Ward of Southampton, England, on the Eastern bank of the River Itchen, built on sloping parkland which once formed part of Bitterne Manor.
Bitterne Park Ward includes the suburbs of Bitterne Park, Bittern ...
, and attended Bitterne Park School.
He became an engineer for the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
(RAF) in 1980, working on the
Hawker Siddeley Nimrod
The Hawker Siddeley Nimrod is a retired maritime patrol aircraft developed and operated by the United Kingdom. It was an extensive modification of the de Havilland Comet, the world's first operational jet airliner. It was originally designed ...
fleet for 10 years. Smith then worked for
British Airways
British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...
as an aeronautical engineer at
London Heathrow
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...
for 16 years.
Smith owned the local bike shop Triangle Cycles in Bitterne Park from 1993 to 2003, and was the chairman of the Triangle Traders' association. He founded the public relations consultancy Vigilo Ltd in 2006.
He has been a director of 3S Fire Ltd, a fire management consultancy affiliated with the HFRS since 2013.
Local political career
Smith joined the Conservative Party after the
1997 general election. He had previously voted for the single issue
Eurosceptic Referendum Party
The Referendum Party was a Eurosceptic, single-issue political party that was active in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 1997. The party's sole objective was for a referendum to be held on the nature of the UK's membership of the European Union ...
. He was first elected as a Conservative councillor for the Harefield ward in the 2000
Southampton City Council
Southampton City Council is the local authority of the city of Southampton. It is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local ...
election. Smith had previously unsuccessfully contested the council elections in 1998 as an independent candidate and in 1999 as a Conservative. He was a cabinet member for economic development on the council between 2007 and 2010.
He was the leader of the council until 2012 when the
Labour Party took over the council.
Smith was appointed as chairman of
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service (HIWFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service for the county of Hampshire, including the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth, and the county of the Isle of Wight on the south coast of ...
(HFRS) in 2009 and was re-appointed in 2014.
In April 2011, while Smith was visiting the submarine
HMS Astute (S119)
HMS ''Astute'' is an operational nuclear-powered attack
submarine in the Royal Navy, the lead boat of her class.
''Astute'' is the second submarine of the Royal Navy to be named after the characteristic of shrewdness and discernment—the ...
as part of the tour, a sailor started shooting, and killed an officer. Smith intervened and helped apprehend the sailor. He was awarded the
George Medal
The George Medal (GM), instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI,''British Gallantry Medals'' (Abbott and Tamplin), p. 138 is a decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, awarded for gallantry, typically by civilians, or in circ ...
for his actions.
Parliamentary career
Smith stood as a Conservative candidate in the
Southampton Itchen
Southampton, Itchen is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Royston Smith, a Conservative member of parliament. Discounting the Speaker (of the House of Commons) returned in the early 1970s in two ...
constituency in the
2010 general election. He came second in the seat, losing by 192 votes to the incumbent Labour MP
John Denham John Denham may refer to:
* John Denham (died 1556 or later), English MP for Shaftesbury
* John Denham (judge), (1559–1639), father of the poet below, and one of the Ship Money judges
* John Denham (poet) (1615–1669), English poet
* John Denham ...
. Smith was elected as MP for the constituency in the subsequent
2015 general election. Smith was re-elected in the
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
and
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
general elections.
Smith is a member of the UK Delegation
. Smith has also participated in the OSCE's election monitoring activities in the United States, Italy, Hungary, Russia, and Kazakhstan.
House of Commons Select Committee Membership
Smith sat on the
Work and Pensions Select Committee
The Work and Pensions Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Work and Pensi ...
between December 2016 and May 2017. He was a part of the
Committees on Arms Export Controls
The Committees on Arms Export Controls (formerly the Quadripartite Committee) is the name for the concurrent meeting of four House of Commons select committees, comprising the International Trade Select Committee, the Defence Select Committee, t ...
between October 2017 and July 2018.
Smith has been a member of the
Foreign Affairs Select Committee
The Foreign Affairs Select Committee is one of many Parliamentary select committees of the United Kingdom, select committees of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, British House of Commons, which scrutinises the expenditure, administration ...
since September 2017. He has the best attendance record out of all committee members, at 100%.
Brexit
Smith supported
Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
in the
2016 UK EU membership referendum. He voted for Prime Minister
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
's Brexit withdrawal agreement on 29 March 2019. Smith also voted against any
referendum on a withdrawal agreement in the indicative votes on 27 March.
He then voted for the Prime Minister
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
's Brexit withdrawal agreement in October.
In 2019, he successfully helped secure Government Brexit contingency funding for Southampton after writing a letter to
James Brokenshire
James Peter Brokenshire (8 January 1968 – 7 October 2021) was a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party, he served in Theresa May's cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2016 to 2018, ...
. He made the case that Brexit-related gridlock caused by disruption at south coast ports could have a major impact on hospitals and other services. Smith believed Southampton needed tens of thousands of pounds to cope with what he described as "every eventuality" in the letter. A few days afterwards, Southampton was awarded £273,000 to help the port cope with the impact of Brexit.
The Cladding Crisis
Several private residential buildings in
Southampton Itchen
Southampton, Itchen is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Royston Smith, a Conservative member of parliament. Discounting the Speaker (of the House of Commons) returned in the early 1970s in two ...
are being affected by the
UK Cladding Crisis. Smith and
Stephen McPartland
Stephen Anthony McPartland (born 9 August 1976) is a British Conservative Party politician and business consultant. He was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stevenage at the 2010 general election.
Early life
Born in Liverpool ...
tabled th
McPartland-Smith Amendments to the Building Safety Billin 2021. The amendments include zero-VAT rating for all remediation work and waking watch costs, a government-backed insurance scheme, and legislative protection to prevent costs being passed down to leaseholders. Amendment NC4 requires the government to create a fund into which all builders of higher-risk buildings, residential mortgage lenders and residential building insurers must make contributions. No builder will be able to obtain building control approval to construct any building unless it becomes a member of the Scheme and pays its dues. Leaseholders and leaseholder representative groups giving evidence to the
Public Bill Committees said the Smith-McPartland amendment on a Building Safety Indemnity Scheme (NC4) will help leaseholders.
Prior to the Building Safety Bill, Smith and McPartland tabled t
McPartland-Smith amendments to the Fire Safety Billin 2020, designed to protect leaseholders from having to foot the bill for necessary remedial works focused on potentially unsafe cladding affixed to the buildings in which they reside. The amendments were defeated by 320 votes to 256.
Following the
Secretary of State Michael Gove's announcements to protect leaseholders with new laws to make industry pay for building safety, Smith wrote for the
Building Safety Council in April 2022. In the article, Smith welcomed the government’s reset on its approach to fire safety based on the idea of proportionality, as leaseholders will be protected from the costs of remediating dangerous cladding. However, Smith said that he believes that the insurers have gotten off too lightly and he had made his views known to the Secretary of State and in debates in Parliament.
Levelling Up
In 2019, writing in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'', Smith made the case for 'levelling up' before it was adopted as Government policy. Smith associated Southampton with
post-industrial
In sociology, the post-industrial society is the stage of society's development when the service sector generates more wealth than the manufacturing sector of the economy.
The term was originated by Alain Touraine and is closely related to s ...
towns to argue that
Government Ministers
A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, ...
should look South not just North when it comes to Government priorities in regenerating cities. In an article for ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' in 2020, Smith similarly called on the Government to 'level up' Southampton, suggesting that Southampton was one of the first
red wall seats gained from Labour when he became the Conservative MP for the city in 2015.
Spitfire Memorial
In 2018, Smith met with the Minister with responsibility for coastal communities to discuss his campaign to honour the
Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griff ...
and how Southampton could put in a bid to help fund a fitting memorial to the aircraft.
R. J. Mitchell designed the Spitfire in Southampton and its first flight was from
Eastleigh
Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census.
The town lies on the River Itchen, o ...
Airport.
On 28 March 2017, Smith held a Westminster Hall debate in Parliament calling on the Government to help fund The National Tribute to The
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
in Southampton. The debate received support from MPs on all sides of the house.
In
Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak (; born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. He previously held two Cabinet of ...
's first budget in 2020, it was announced that a planned memorial to commemorate the
Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griff ...
is to receive a £3 million grant from the government. The year 2020 saw the 80th anniversary of the
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
. Smith said the £6m scheme required matching funding.
Campaigning
In 2010, Smith campaigned for
Itchen College
Itchen Sixth Form College (also known as Itchen College) is a mixed sixth form college in Bitterne, Southampton, Hampshire, England. It was established in 1906 and was originally a mixed secondary school, it later became Itchen Grammar School un ...
to retain government funding following government cuts, to protect Southampton's estate regeneration programme and for investment into
Woolston
Woolston may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Woolston, Cheshire, a village and civil parish in Warrington
* Woolston, Devon, on the list of United Kingdom locations: Woof-Wy near Kingsbridge, Devon
* Woolston, Southampton, a city suburb in Ham ...
shopping parade.
Personal life
He lives in
Peartree, Southampton.
Controversies
As council leader in 2011, Smith initiated an up to 5.5% pay cut on council employees as part of a bid to cut the council's expenditure by £76 million by 2015. In response, unions took industrial action by refusing to collect rubbish. In 2011, Smith was stopped by police for not wearing a seat belt and later found to have been driving an uninsured car. He was fined and given six points on his driving licence.
On 20 February 2016, Smith was named by ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' as Britain's least active MP out of the MPs that were newly elected in 2015. Smith defended his record by stating that "Southampton is a challenging constituency and I spend my time doing as much as I can locally. I don't spend hours in the House of Commons waiting to make a three-minute speech."Smith has a second job working as a consultant to a property firm. Royston Smith (Conservative) has received £18,000 since May 2020 for 30 hours' work as a consultant for a property company
After the 2015 election,
UKIP
The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest p ...
candidate Kim Rose claimed that he had received data on voters in the constituency and advice from Smith to assist his campaign. Smith denied the allegations. Police looked into the matter and said Smith had no case to answer. Smith's local party association, Southampton Itchen Conservative Association was registered with the
Information Commissioner's Office
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It is the independe ...
, and the
Conservative Party Chairman
The chairman of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom is responsible for party administration and overseeing the Conservative Campaign Headquarters, formerly Conservative Central Office.
When the Conservatives are in government, the offic ...
at the time,
Lord Feldman, wrote to complainants to say that no data protection breach had occurred.
In December 2017, Smith, the former owner of a bicycle shop, suggested cyclists should only use roads with cycle lanes on them, stating that cyclists should "consider when and where they cycle" in order to "make the roads safer". The comments came after a 64-year-old cyclist died after colliding with a lorry on Portsmouth Road, Woolston. He was criticised by campaigners on the grounds that "we should be encouraging more people to use the roads, not less", while it was subsequently reported that Smith had previously called for £11.5 million in grant funding for the city's cycling strategy, such as creating new cycle lanes, to be diverted elsewhere.
Smith was accused by members of the opposition of 'callousness' after claiming £1 in parking expenses to visit a food bank in his
Southampton Itchen
Southampton, Itchen is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Royston Smith, a Conservative member of parliament. Discounting the Speaker (of the House of Commons) returned in the early 1970s in two ...
constituency in November 2021.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Royston
1964 births
Conservative Party (UK) councillors
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Councillors in Hampshire
Living people
Politicians from Southampton
Recipients of the George Medal
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
Royal Air Force airmen
Leaders of local authorities of England
Engineers from Southampton
British Eurosceptics